The Courtship
by Skeren Dreamera
Summary: Kakashi has lived a fairly straightforward life in the years since the war. Apparently, that doesn't really sit well with his students, and they decide that it's their job to help. If that means dragging him into a relationship with them? Well, that just means they care.
1. Chapter 1

Since the war, things had been different.

There were a great many unsubtle changes at the start. Being appointed to the Hokage position, whether he wanted to be or not, was definitely at the top of this list. It wasn't the thing that best stuck in his mind, even if it was the thing that took over his time and tethered him in place when he wanted nothing more than to sit back and breathe for a while. Another change was in the way people regarded each other, at first. It made a treaty easy, but it also made what follows a treaty harder.

Without a war, shinobi were obsolete after all, and he was nothing if not a child of war. He was hardly the only one.

The changes were not all so obvious as that though. There were the smaller ones too, and somehow, these were the most shaking. Some of the younger generation, for instance, saw through the lie of nothing else having gone wrong. Then again, one doesn't lose an arm when nothing goes wrong, now do they? They didn't tell what happened while everyone else slept, and he was going to keep it that way, no matter the suspicions from some.

For once, he had the power to protect his students from the world, and he would take it, no matter how badly the one he was protecting most might have hurt him in his actions.

It was nothing to how the boy had hurt himself.

In light of that, punishing him would serve no purpose but to make the other two more miserable, and what was the point in that? Thus, the secret that happened while the others slept remained so, and all was blamed on Kaguya. And when he chose to leave for a while? He'd let him go, to make his peace, and just hoped that he'd come back. For the sake of the other two, at the very least, who had never loosened their grip on him in their hearts.

From there, other things had changed, and he'd finally come to know the boy who had stood in for Sasuke. They were nothing alike, but he made Yamato happy, and that was nothing to scoff at. If it made him feel a bit alone to see one of his few friends happy, well, there was no harm in that as long as he kept it to himself. It wasn't as though he didn't have more than ample amounts of work to keep him busy and distracted after all.

Gai helped. Unfortunately, Gai had also been in a great deal of pain, and sometimes being around him became far too many tears for him to handle. He'd tried though, and his awkward attempts at cheering up his self-declared Rival seemed to be enough for the man, even if they only distracted him in fleeting moments. Thankfully, for the first months, the man's injuries meant that that was all the time he served awake, letting him escape to sort himself out after and brace for the next visit.

The relief when a visit went without tears or a too-serious expression on Gai's face was intense enough that he had to lean on the wall upon leaving the room. The man would get better. He would be healthy again, and his heart would heal. Anything else would have been one more weight on him that he just didn't think the world should bear, not with as much sorrow as lingered in a pall over those who had lost loved ones.

Such was the end of any war, but that didn't make it any better to see. He was glad when that heavy height of it started to go away.

It had reminded him too much of things long lost and recently dashed to pieces again.

At the end of the day though... the changes kept coming, and while tiring, it was good to see the village change, in certain ways. If he was watching from the viewpoint of not the Hokage, it would be better, but it wasn't as though there was anyone else left to carry the burden, and Tsunade managed to escape it on grounds of being too old and battle weary to take it back up after being ripped in half, and good riddance to a young person's game. He didn't buy it, and he knew she knew he didn't buy it, but he really wasn't in a position to make her take it _back_, now was he?

Hokage or not, it would take a far stupider man than he to try to force the Lady Tsunade to do anything she didn't please.

That Naruto had done just that in the past only meant that he was a lucky idiot, not that he wanted to take after his student. Somehow, he was sure he wasn't cute enough to evade her wrath if he tried. Sometimes, it was tempting anyway.

Thus time came to that morning, nearly four years after the war, when everything had finally started to find a rhythm, and he no longer needed to watch everything so carefully.

Sasuke had been back in the village, mostly, for years, Naruto had looked to be going after Hinata, and Sakura had finally marshaled up the drive to give Sasuke another go, with much more success than last time.

In essence, he was under the impression that his loved ones had all started to settle into happy places, with him and Gai being the two watching over the assembled collection together.

Many things would happen that morning that would make him wonder how he'd been so horribly glaringly wrong about what he'd observed, and how he could possibly have missed that things were really, really not gong the way that he thought they were.

The first thing to fall out of sync with expectation was, jarringly enough, Gai.

When Kakashi had gotten up that morning, he'd done things the way he normally did, ambling out of his door and off toward his office in no great hurry.

Gai, apparently still on his laps, which was a little weird considering how late it was for that warm up, had crossed his path. He'd been curious enough to veer off course himself, which had, of course, gotten the other man's attention, and he'd slowed so that they could talk without struggling to hear each other.

"My dear Rival! It is not often you join me in my training in such a spirited way! While I do not protest, it does leave me curious what brings this change of heart to the idea of running laps!" The grin that followed didn't have anything hidden in it, so how was he to know where this conversation was to go?

"No change of heart, just curious why you're doing it so close to noon." He didn't give any speculation on what else it could be, because they hadn't had a challenge that Gai could have lost in... over a week now actually, and unless he had fumbled something in his training, something that Gai didn't tend to _do_, he couldn't think of any other reason for him to have penance laps. Had he been at this since dawn maybe?

"Ah! These are Celebratory Laps! I have convinced the one I was trying to woo to go on a date with me!" He followed his words with a fist pump, but Kakashi had ground to a halt at the news that Gai was interested in _anyone_. Sure, he didn't begrudge Gai the idea in theory, but why now all of the sudden? And who was it? How had he missed it?

His silence, and sudden departure from Gai's side, was probably why the man circled back, and he finally came to a halt in front of him to put his hands on his shoulders. "My Rival, is all well?"

While his mind was still in shock, it seemed that his autopilot was working just fine, and he nodded his head. "Fine, fine, just surprised. So, you have a date?" He managed to focus with the grounding weight of Gai's hands on his shoulders. He didn't want the man to think he wasn't happy for him after all. He was. He was just... baffled.

"I do! I am greatly excited by this, thus I decided to run! I cannot do as many as I once could just yet, it's true, but it is still enough for a proper celebration! But you must not tell my students, for they would be greatly crushed if this does not go as well as I hope."

While Gai looked very serious in declaring this, all Kakashi could think was that it probably wouldn't be his _students_ who would be sad if the date went poorly. Still, he kept his mouth shut, since there was no reason for him to go spoiling the man's day. He'd prod him for details later if he didn't start singing the praises of whoever this was.

If he hadn't been already at least. He'd have to work that one out later though. No reason to give away that he couldn't immediately point at someone and go 'that's the one Gai likes'. Especially when he really _should_ be able to do that.

"I'm sure it'll go fine." He lifted one of his hands between them and waved it casually as though wafting away the worry. "You just get back to your celebration and let me know how it goes."

The smile he got was as brilliant as Gai's ever were, and he felt his own lips, hidden by the mask, tip up in turn. If this news made Gai smile like that again, he'd take it, even if it did leave him feeling awkward with unasked questions and unpicked observations. With a cheery 'I shall!' Gai was off again, and Kakashi looked after him for a moment in thoughtful silence before turning and resuming his walk to the tower.

He was surprised, confused, and somewhat happy for his friend. That was more than enough of a muddle for one day, and he'd have been perfectly content to leave it at that.

The universe, on the other hand, had apparently decided that he'd settled too firmly into his routine, and wanted to get all the shaking over with all at once instead of letting him adjust to the changes it was going to inflict on him in individual increments. To be fair, the universe probably had a point, and at least he'd have ample time to recover afterward if it didn't fling anything else at him.

Maybe.

Probably not, but the thought was still nice, and if he'd realized that his trio of students all converging on him shortly before he would have reached the tower meant that he'd be getting any downtime effectively sealed away forever, he probably would have run instead of lifting his hand in a little wave at them as their presence in his path made him halt.

"Yo." When no immediate answer was forthcoming, he looked from one student to the next, honestly baffled why Naruto, at least, wasn't speaking up.

It was even more bewildering when it was Sasuke who broke the silence, given that that student, of all of them, tended to avoid being the spokesman like the plague. "We've been talking."

The first words being spoken clearly broke whatever the cause of the tension was, and he turned his head to look at Naruto as the blond picked up the thread. "Yeah, see, we've been talking and we kind of noticed some stuff. So, you know, we need to talk to you too." One hand had drifted behind his head with a sheepish smile, and the other waved at Kakashi like he was worried he'd miss who he was talking about.

He wasn't given a chance to interject before Sakura started talking though. "Right! And it's not something for being out in the middle of the village, or even your office, so, we thought maybe we could drag you back to your place for the talk? If that's alright with you! If you have something really important to get to we can wait a little while, but it really should happen soon, okay?"

It never failed to be amusing when both boys were giving someone the same look, in this case it was disbelief aimed at Sakura, but he couldn't find as much humor in it because when was the last time these three had ever come to talk to him about anything, really? If it was just one of them, it wouldn't be so strange, but as a unit? Unusual, and worrying enough to put any sense of humor right out of his head.

Better to get it out of the way now instead of drawing it out. "Fine, we can talk now. It's not like the office would miss me yet." He waved it off, then turned to start on his way back home. It was closer than any of their apartments, and the quicker he found out what was bothering these three, the better.

The walk wasn't entirely silent, and the three kept trading looks as they flanked him like he couldn't see what they were doing. At one point Naruto even opened his mouth like he was going to start in on whatever this was about before they managed to get out of the public eye. Clearly Sakura thought that too because one of her pointy elbows found its way into Naruto's stomach without her missing a step. That gesture, they at least didn't pretend he couldn't see, and he earned a bright smile from the woman for his sidelong glance at her.

Despite that though, the walk had a strange air to it, and he would be relieved when it was done, a fact which had him opening his door and ushering them inside before going to plant himself in his chair so they could sit on the couch, waving them to it. "Alright, what's going on?"

Naruto hurried over, Sakura walked normally, and Sasuke hesitated. Interesting. Even more so when the first two sat and the last ended up standing behind them, clearly too unsettled to be properly stationary. Naruto, on the other hand, just looked excited, and Kakashi quickly decided that the mixed signals would not give him a headache. He refused. Instead, he would hear them out and give whatever advice they needed from him so they could be off doing whatever it was they did when they weren't working.

Sakura clearly intended to be the one to talk, and was even opening her mouth to give him some kind of statement that would no doubt not leave him as blindsided as what Naruto cut across her to assault him with. "Kakashi-sensei, you've looked super lonely lately, more than normal, and we decided that we wanted you to be with us!"

Sakura's immediate rebuttal of a punch to the side of the head, and Sasuke's facepalm, by no means made him believe that he could have heard that correctly. They were compelling, but there was several points in that sentence that made no sense at all. One, Naruto was with Hinata, he thought, two, the statement implied all three of them were together, which he hadn't thought was going on either, and lastly, he was _not_ lonely. He was just fine as he was. Mostly. Until the Gai thing this morning. Which was really strange timing, come to think of it, but the three were looking at him, so clearly he was expected to say something.

"If you wanted to train you just needed to say so." Because that was all they meant. They were worried and wanted him to look less sad. That had to be it. Nothing to do with relationships and he'd entirely misunderstood.

Naruto was shaking his head, but this time Sakura got a hand over his mouth before he could get any words out so she could talk. "No, Sensei, we don't mean like that. We're worried, and we've all come to agree that we all are very attached to you in our own ways and want you to be happy, so... we'd like you to be in a relationship, with the three of us, you know, as a group."

He needed a moment to think and latched onto the first question that crossed his mind. "So Hinata-?"

Sasuke was the one who answered him. "Dating Shino for the last year."

Which was not the answer he'd been expecting at all. Bewildered about how removed he'd gotten from the rest of the village with his workload in the last couple years to not have noticed, he had to wonder if the concern wasn't perhaps somewhat warranted. Still, it wasn't as though he could actually accept. They were worried, and that was nice of them, but he was a grown man and could handle his own hurts without burdening someone else with them. He had just opened his mouth to decline when Sakura cut him off, some steel in her eyes that made him lean a bit away from the group of them on reflex.

"Don't just say no Sensei. We've been keeping an eye on you, and you're not doing so well. You look tired, you're not eating right, and even Sasuke thinks you're being too withdrawn." The frown that Sasuke leveled at the back of her head was soundly ignored. By her at least. Naruto shot the Uchiha a grin. Then they all looked back at him as she kept talking. "So don't just say no because you're trying to do right by us. We're not going to be happy while you're like this. And yes it is a _we _here," She paused, waving at the other two pointedly, "and we _all _agree that this is the best plan, okay? Just... think about it. Please?"

When she got up, looking pointedly at Naruto, it was obvious that Naruto had expected more, maybe even an immediate yes, and the blond shot him a pleading look that he shook his head at. He was set on saying no, and as Sakura started to pull Naruto off to leave, he thought he'd be fine with that.

Sasuke, however, stayed behind, and was watching him with his arms folded until the other two were clearly in the front room getting on their shoes. "Kakashi. You're our family."

The dark eyes stayed fixed on him, really pressing the weight of the words into him, reminding him of who was saying them, and only then did the younger man turn and follow the other two, waiting for no reply from the stunned Hokage the three left in their wake.

Unlike Naruto, he hadn't expected an immediate answer.

That didn't mean he wasn't just as invested in getting one apparently.


	2. Chapter 2

If he wasn't counting the time incorrectly, the first inklings of the plan that led to Kakashi being... ambushed, for a lack of better term, had started about a year and a half prior.

It was a day when he'd been in the village, with he and Sakura once again skirting each other and trying to figure out how they fit together now that so much had changed, that he found out that Naruto had broken up with Hinata. It wasn't spectacular, nor messy, but it seemed that they had, after a year together, come to the unanimous conclusion that for all that there was love, it didn't mean that they had the ability to make one another happy.

For Hinata, he later learned, it was deeply upsetting, but somehow expected, that her childhood dreams simply weren't met in reality by the person she'd been pinning them on. Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't understand what he'd done wrong. He couldn't figure out where the disconnect had been, and blamed himself for not having been able to make it work with someone who so clearly loved him. Hinata had gone to her team for comfort, and Naruto had come to Sakura. At least, he'd tried to.

Sasuke couldn't much blame him that Sakura was the one that first came to mind for that. At least, in terms of people their age. It's not like he was any kind of font of support now, nor had he been pretty much ever. Still, it bothered him to see Naruto falling apart even a little after how profoundly they'd changed the basis of their relationship, and he'd done the only thing he could do. He'd intercepted and sent the man off to Iruka before Sakura even got wind that anything was going on. Then again, she hadn't even been home when Naruto had come by, and Sasuke was just gong to be grateful that Naruto hadn't questioned what Sasuke was doing at her place.

It would be far too embarrassing to admit that he'd broken into her apartment to clean because last time he'd been there the place had made his skin crawl.

The redirection had worked. It had helped Naruto pull himself together before he could slide too far into introspection, a mercy, he was sure, as the next time he saw him, while the blond wasn't _happy_, he didn't look like he'd just been stabbed and was wondering how he'd failed to dodge. He would know, he'd seen exactly that look on Naruto's face in the past.

Still, somehow... he'd failed to take into account that this was Naruto. Naruto didn't do anything by halves, and if he felt like he'd messed up in a relationship, he was going to go out of his way to find the flaw, then train it right out of existence. Sasuke had, somehow, managed to completely overlook the most important part of that idea.

Naruto tended to use him as a focus anytime he did just about anything. He may feel like he failed Hinata, but it was Sasuke he was going to set his sights on to work out the kinks with before taking another run at her. In later reflection, Sasuke was sure that that had been Naruto's thinking.

It didn't actually work out like that at all though. No, instead Naruto had thrown the idea at Sasuke, and Sasuke, being the wise person he was, closed the door in Naruto's face and told him to go away. He'd even been tempted to further remove himself from the situation by requesting a mission, but he wasn't heartless, and he didn't want to kick Naruto back into whatever pit he was trying to use him to crawl out of.

He could already imagine the disaster if he went after Sakura with this idea. It ended with Naruto smeared across the floor, of course. He doubted he'd pick that temporary person who'd tried to claim team seven status during the war, thankfully, but did he really want to risk it? Probably not.

None of that mattered though, because as soon as Sasuke had closed the door on the blond, said blond had started pounding on the door insisting that he at least heard him out. It gave him time to think over the repercussions, to recall Naruto's stubborn stupidity, and to think of how terrible for just about everyone it would be if Naruto actually got an okay from someone who didn't really get it.

He yanked open the door during a lull in the pounding, then smoothly turned to the side so Naruto fell on the floor instead of him when he'd been about to resume. "Fine. Talk."

That was all the permission that Naruto needed apparently, and the blond was up off the floor, chattering before he could even get the door closed. "Okay, so I have it all worked out! It's super simple, see, I just need a dry run at a relationship. You know, working out how to do all the things that I think she wanted me to do and I didn't know I was supposed to? Then bam, I go swoop her off her feet once I'm practiced and everything's all sorted out."

"...Dobe, do you even know why you actually broke up?" He turned, heading back into his apartment without a word. It was still odd, not having a whole district to roam, or even a _house_... but it might have been for the best that it was ruined in the fighting and he had to start fresh.

"Teme. Yeah! Of course I know. I mean, she said." When Naruto fumbled for words, he just moved off to the kitchen to start working on dinner, the blond trailing after him as he tried to remember. "Um. She said that I don't pay attention to anything, and that maybe we weren't good for each other as more than friends. Yeah! That was it! So if I fix that then bam, all better, right?"

"No." He didn't continue, instead taking out the things he needed for the meal.

"Ehhh? What do you mean 'no'? It's foolproof!" Naruto was stomping around, but not sitting. That meant he was probably actually listening. No reason not to spell it out then.

"No, it's not. Did it not occur to you that she might have really wanted to just be friends again?" He worked steadily, carefully assembling everything as he kept an ear firmly on the restless blond behind him. "Some people are better that way."

"Nuh uh! No way! I mean. You and me are way closer than friends and it works out better for us that it's like that, so why wouldn't that work with her? I mean, she loves me, it's supposed to just _work _when you love someone, isn't it?" Sasuke had no need to look to know that Naruto was flailing his hands around.

"No. It's not." This time there was more steel in the denial, and he cut the carrot he had in his hand with a bit more force than strictly required.

It seemed that that had silenced Naruto pretty effectively, and though he could feel the blond's eyes on him, he didn't say anything for several minutes after that, letting him work in peace. He ended up actually stilling when Naruto did speak however, since his tone a lot softer than he was used to hearing out of him. It was oddly subdued. Honest. Apologetic even. "I guess- I'm sorry. I wasn't really thinking about it like that."

Instead of speaking, Sasuke just hitched up a shoulder in a shrug, then moved to wash his hands, back rigidly straight as he kept himself focused on his tasks, clearing the counter of debris. He lingered back at the sink, letting the silence draw out without looking at the blond.

"So... did you say no because of it being a Hinata thing, or because I was weirding you out?" The tone was lighter this time, and it was clear that Naruto was trying to bring the topic back to his original one.

Sasuke was irritated with himself that he actually felt grateful about that. "I said no because you're an idiot. No two people are the same, so dating one won't make you good at dating a different one."

The last thing he expected after drying his hands was for Naruto to be as close as he was when he turned around, his expression thoughtful. It was enough to alarm him a little, because the context wasn't one he was sure he knew how to approach. "Yeah... I guess you're right. Wanna give it a try anyway?"

"I am not being your practice relationship." He ducked around Naruto, moving to get dishes to set out at his table, his tone more clipped than it maybe should have been. Or maybe exactly as clipped as it should have been. Hard to say.

"Yeah, I got that... so. Maybe a real one?" He held up his hands defensively against the sharp look that earned him. It seemed Naruto wasn't completely filled with bad ideas today, only mostly. "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I'm just saying... maybe since we finally sorted out all our problems it might be better to, you know, go for the guy I know I love and know the rules for handling, and maybe, you know, go from there."

"You know that me and Sakura were talking about dating, don't you?" Which wasn't a no, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell Sakura that he was bowing out if this happened. He'd disappointed her enough without throwing another rejection on top of the pile. Besides... He didn't only want to try dating her for her sake.

Naruto chewed on his lip for a moment, clearly stumped by this question, but it didn't last. It never lasted. "In that case... Maybe I'll just have to ask her too and date you both!"

He had a death wish, that was the only thing he could come up with. "Just like that?"

"Yep! I mean, if I told her you were good with it it would probably go a lot better than if I didn't tell her you were good with it though so... are you good with it?" And there went Naruto rubbing at the back of his head, a nervous gesture he hadn't seen in months. He was really starting to get the sense that he was serious about all this.

So, Sasuke being how he was, he gave the only answer that he could that made any sense to him. He washed his hands of the whole thing. He could count on Sakura to handle Naruto. She was good at it. "...Fine. Don't blame me if she doesn't agree."

Naruto just grinned, then let the topic move on to other things, pestering him about what he was making, and otherwise just making a nuisance of himself. He'd stayed for dinner, and Sasuke had expected that to be the end of that, problem solved.

Instead, a week later the pair had come to sit him down and work out the exact terms of what the relationship was going to be. Or more like, tell him what they'd come up with and make sure he hadn't backed out of it in the meantime.

He hadn't, of course, but it had still taken months for them to really get used to the little changes that took them from teammates over into dating. The first few weeks had been an agony of awkward 'casual' touches and insistence on paying for things when they didn't have to on the behalf of the other two. And him? He felt like he hadn't gotten anywhere by agreeing to this save that Sakura was more relaxed around him instead of seeming so off balance every time they were alone. Clearly, it didn't last though, and it all changed the day that Sakura got fed up with something that Naruto was saying and kissed him to quiet him instead of using her fists.

They'd both been surprised, but after that? It hadn't been awkward anymore, that melting away into a higher level of affection that Sasuke sometimes still wasn't sure how to handle. However, he did find it nice, even if he was poor at reciprocating.

That didn't mean that they were perfectly in accord about everything though. Not even close. No, they still fought, even months into their relationship, and it was during one of those fights that Sasuke had noticed something was a bit off about Kakashi. It had been a distraction, looking in on the man. A whim while he was irritated at whatever stupid thing Naruto had said that day. He hadn't expected anything to come of it really. Maybe a conversation, something to cool his head before going back to deal with the blond idiot he had the dubious pleasure of calling his boyfriend.

Instead, he'd come face to face with someone who looked more haggard than he could ever remember seeing the man, even more so than when they'd been genin and he'd practically been comatose for over a day. No, this was a different kind of look, deeper and heavy in a way that distracted him from his irritations and made them seem less important by far. Kakashi wasn't meant to look like that, and while he'd stayed a little while, just sharing silence and observing his former sensei, he'd quickly come to the conclusion that this needed to be put to his teammates.

A solution needed to be found.

Of course they had to see for themselves, and over the next few weeks, all three of them spent time around the man, talking to him and seeing what they could do individually before sharing their observations with each other. Kakashi wasn't doing well. He was listless, and even for him seemed too tired. He wasn't spending enough time away from the office. He didn't seem to be eating enough. He was almost never spotted doing his reading anymore.

The list kept going, and the observation notes spread from only him to encompass the people around him, the ones he spent time with, the ones he used to. Naruto even had the gall to go and question Gai, and when that failed, asked Iruka to do it. Slightly better results had come of that, and some rather strange ones too, but it hadn't helped clear up how Kakashi had gotten to the state he was in now, just that no one seemed to be able to break in and fix it.

Which left it to them.

The suggestion, initially, had come from Sakura, and was meant as a jest.

She'd fully expected the idea of dragging Kakashi into their relationship 'since it had helped them so much' to get shot down and stay there.

Sasuke could have told her that suggesting anything that was meant as a joke to Naruto was a recipe to make sure it went ahead and became a reality. In fact, that she even did so, knowing how Naruto was, made him wonder at times if she'd done it on purpose so that Naruto would think that it was the best idea ever and do exactly what he'd ended up doing.

Taking it seriously and getting them both on board to make it happen.

Of course, it took months of careful watching after that before they did anything that involved Kakashi directly, but by then, they were very _very_ sure, and no one could say that any of them weren't stubborn.

If that was a good thing would remain to be seen.


End file.
